Normally we don’t like rules, but during GFN 5 you have to obey your OWN rule..

guerillafilmnites are BY DONATION which goes to The Salvation Army.

————–THE guerilla DETAILS

Short film : “The Comedian” . Directed by Andrew Walsh (9min, 2011)

Think of a cross between Robert De Niro, Rupert Pupkin, Austen Tayshus and you have “The Comedian”… played brilliantly by local actor James Barr. Andrew Walsh directs this visual piece that echoes “The King of Comedy” (1983), which suprisingly the director hadn’t seen by the time he made the film. This is one of the best shorts going around in the last 2 years. I have seen a couple of Walsh’s other shorts and he is a young director to look out for.

Short film : “A Holiday To Remember” (13mins, 2011)

I like the rule “Write what you know about.. ” and director Zev Howley did for his award winning short. After a slow start, the film starring Peter Flaherty (Bikie Wars) is a touching and dramatic reminder about a marginalized group in society that needs more attention. Lead actor Neild Schneider (Blue Heelers) kept me guessing in a role that rivals Leonardo DiCaprio’s in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” (1993).

“… A twisted Suburban Fairytale… A mysterious story unfolds when a young woman, Summer, invades the home and the minds of two eccentric brothers, Julian and Poe. Envy and sabotage drive this absurdist black comedy with a surrealist sting.”

“The Silent Mangoes began as a playful post-modern exercise in fusing theatrical and cinematic techniques… part Bugs Bunny, part Beckett… It elucidates the mythic and surreal aspects of conventional narrative as fairy-tale. The tongue-in-cheek and slightly absurdist tones.. merge with the dark surrealist world of suburban banality.”

The Silent Mangoes is a strong atmospheric piece. It’s enigmatic, haunting, melancholy, sometimes long winded but then again isn’t life sometimes? The film could also be described as a weird half cousin of The Actress (2005) which was screened at GFN 1.

Lead actor, Mark Leonard Winter is magnetic in the film. He plays Poe, who is like the human unconscious wearing black leather pants in which he probably looks better than even Jim Morrison. Winter has gone on to perform in more films and television but judging by the snippets I have seen of them, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Silent Mangoes captured his best work so far.